"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."
- Stendhal
"Chélan had acted as imprudently for Julien as he had for himself. He had given him the habit of reasoning correctly, and of not being put off by empty words, but he had neglected to tell him that this..."
"After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne."
"I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction," said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought."
"They were completely vague. They expressed everything and nothing. 'It is the Æolian harp of style,' thought Julien. 'Amid the most lofty thoughts about annihilation, death, the infinite, etc., I can ..."
"In Paris, Julien’s position with regard to Madame de Renal would very soon have been simplified; but in Paris love is the child of the novels. The young tutor and his timid mistress would have found i..."
"Without patience, without absence of anger, no one can be called a politician."
"A novel is a mirror carried along a main road."
"The only unhappiness is a life of boredom."